The Truth About Bloody Mary??

SO GUYS, WHAT IF I TOLD YOU THAT YOU HAVE NO REFLECTION IN THE MIRROR?? CREEPY RIGHT? SO TODAY I'M GONNA TELL YOU WHAT IS THINK ABOUT THIS CREEPY MIRROR LEGEND KNOWN AS BLOODY MARY...

If you've been to a slumber party (or, at least, a slumber party held before the advent of Netflix), then you're familiar with the game "Bloody Mary." Game players enter a darkened room, and chant some variation of the phrase "Bloody Mary" into a mirror a varying amount of times (in my neck of the woods, the go-to incantation was "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, show your face" three times, but the legend can call for up to 13 repetitions of the phrase) How Witless right?. In some versions, you do it in complete darkness; in others, you clutch a candle or flashlight. In some versions, the woman you're invoking is a murderer; in others, a demon; and in other versions, Mary I of England, nicknamed "Bloody Mary" during her reign. In all versions, when you're done with the ritual, a ghoulish woman is supposed to lunge out of the mirror and, I don't know, ghoul around at you. 

I know I'm being sassy right now, but I'm sure childhood games of "Bloody Mary" are at the root of my mirror fears — and I'm not the only one; this myth is the basis of the still-good 1992 horror movie Candyman. However, folklorists locate the roots of this story not in an actual ghost who liked to victimize people through the looking glass but in an older ritual where young women chanted a special incantation in front of a darkened mirror to try and get a look at their future husband. Why was he in the mirror? Were he and Bloody Mary having a thing? We'll never know. And what if you do see something in the mirror while you're tromping around in the dark, invoking a deceased British royal? Oddly, you're simply experiencing the Caputo Effect, a psychological effect that leads us to react to sensory deprivation with imagination. When the effect was studied in a lab by placing subjects in front of a darkened mirror for several minutes, they began to think they saw the image of a different face in it — when in reality, they were seeing their reflection, with added details created by their minds. Also, no matter what, it's not Queen Mary I coming for you through your bathroom mirror — she got that name due to her taste for putting Protestants to death while trying to re-establish Catholicism as the reigning religion in 16th century England, not her taste for mauling tweens who are bored because they can't get a good phone signal at their parents' vacation cabin. ( I know how hard it is when we don't get a good network signal).

So, guys, I hope it's cleared out that bloody mary is just a legendary myth. If you don't believe me I dare you " SAY BLOODY MARY 3 TIMES IN FRONT OF YOUR BATHROOM MIRROR" And what do you expect? a woman in a white gown, hair on her face gonna come creep you or haunt you for life? Like WTH! Anyway, I don't believe in Bloody mary but yeah GHOSTS DO EXIST...

A new twist on the classic mirror game, this Reddit-popularized rite involves setting up candles, a fan, mirrors, three chairs — one that you sit in and two that you place mirrors upon — and then engaging in a series of ritual actions that are supposed to allow spirits or creatures of some sort to take up residence in the mirrors, occupying the roles of "queen" and "fool," and answering your questions.

If you play this game and see a being in one of the mirrors, which are you supposed to only gaze at indirectly? Yup, more Caputo Effect. And if you hear answers? Well, it might just be a case of pareidolia, a psychological phenomenon where you perceive a pattern where one does not exist — which can cover everything from seeing a stain that looks like the Virgin Mary to, yes, hearing words in the rhythmic whirring of a fan.

Or, hey, maybe you are communicating with demons. I'm just some blogger, I don't know what you do in your mirror-based free time.

Souls Of The Dead Can Become Trapped In Mirrors

Of course, the "Bloody Mary" legend isn't just based on some harmless, pre-online dating romantic fun; it also seems to draw from the ancient, cross-cultural myth that the dead and mirrors interact quite poorly.

In Jewish culture, when someone dies, all mirrors are covered in the house while the members of the household mourn for a week, engaging in a practice called "sitting shiva." According to some old Jewish myths, this is because demons visit homes where there has been tragedy or loss — and while they cannot be seen with the naked eye, one can see their reflection in mirrors (so they're essentially reverse vampires). Keeping the mirrors covered keeps mourners, who are already dealing with enough problems, from being startled by the sight of these death-loving goblins. (More commonly understood reasoning holds that the mirrors are covered because praying before mirrors create a chance that the person praying could become distracted — which is a reasonable explanation, so where's the fun in that?)

In some German and Dutch cultures in the past, mirrors were covered up after a death because it was believed that catching a glimpse of yourself after a member of your household died meant that you would go next (and soon). Some historians have documented an older Chinese superstition that held that if a corpse is taken past an uncovered mirror, it will become a ghost. Some old Irish beliefs also held that the soul of a dead person could become trapped inside a mirror that was brought near the body. Rituals involving the covering of mirrors after death were also found in some Indian, English, and Scottish cultures.

But in Victorian culture, the practice of covering mirrors became non-denominational; supposedly all the mirrors were covered when Abraham Lincoln's body was laid out in the White House.

What are you supposed to take away from all of this? Beware of mirrors. Or at the very least, don't stare into them in a darkened room. It's not for me to say; but I hope the next time someone tells you about messing up their back moving a motel bed away from a mirror because it was just too freaky for them, you'll have a little more empathy.